While struggling to breathe earlier this month, Dr. Nathan Tumubone was tormented by hospitalization thoughts as a COVID-19 patient. Thinking about the costs involved, I knew I wanted to stay home.
He and his wife “steamed” themselves up to five times a day, inhaling what they felt was the relief steam coming out of a mixture of boiling herbs.
“The truth is, I didn’t want to go there hospital“We’ve said the GP ‘we’ve seen the costs are really high and you don’t want to go in here.”
As virus cases increase in Uganda, making scarce hospital beds even more expensive, concerns about the alleged exploitation of patients are growing. private hospitals accused of demanding advance payment and hiking fees.
Uganda is among the African countries experiencing a dramatic increase in the number of infections amid a severe shortage of vaccines. The pandemic is resurfacing in 12 of the 54 African countries, the World Health Organization reported on Thursday that the current wave “is increasing in speed, spreading faster and hitting harder.”
The largest audience in Africa Health Official John Nkengasong of the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Thursday that Africa’s third wave is “very devastating” as the delta variant causes infections in many countries.
Only 1% of people across Africa have been fully vaccinated and Uganda has vaccinated less than 1% of its 44 million people. It has confirmed 75,537 infections, including 781 deaths. It is believed that the actual totals are much higher because only a few thousand samples are tested daily.
City hospitals, including the capital, Kampala, are reporting difficulties in finding packaged oxygen and some are running out of space for patients with COVID-19. Intensive care units are in high demand.
While the practice of requiring patient deposits has long been seen as acceptable in this East African country where few have health insurance, anger is rising among some who cite attempts to take advantage of the pandemic.
Without national health insurance The COVID-19 program has stressed that health care in Uganda is “commodified and available to the highest bidder,” said Daniel Kalinaki, a columnist for the Daily Monitor.
“The lingering question is how did we move from a place where you paid what you could and made sure to clear your fees during your next visit, to a place where patients won’t be touched until the bean counter with voice office account confirms that your deposit has been deleted? “
Many Ugandans do not trust government hospitals, citing the decline they find there, as well as the occasional lack of basic supplies. Senior government officials usually seek treatment abroad. Most people attend private establishments that have grown across the country over the years since the healthcare sector was opened to private investors.
Some hospital bills shared by families of COVID-19 patients coming out of intensive care show sums of up to $ 15,000, a small fortune in a country where annual per capita income is less than $ 1,000.
Private hospital directors who spoke to the local press defended their rate policy, saying caring for patients with COVID-19 is risky and not cheap.
Health officials have said they are investigating allegations of exploitation.
Cissy Kagaba, a prominent anti-corruption activist who recently lost both parents to COVID-19, told The Associated Press that she was shocked when the family received a nearly $ 6,000 bill when her father left. one Intensive Care unit. The “risk subsidies” and other items on the receipt looked suspicious, he said.
“When we saw the bill, we couldn’t believe how much it was,” he said, adding that the alleged exploitation of patients reflects rampant official corruption. “You can’t expect any different. If you have a government that exploits its own people, what do you expect from the private sector?”
Tumubone, the doctor recovering from COVID-19, said he panicked when it looked like he should go to a hospital. He and his wife experimented with home care by inhaling steam from the boiling leaves of guava, mango and eucalyptus.
The blockade measures were tightened last week in Uganda. All schools have been ordered to close, a night curfew to be maintained and only vehicles carrying cargo and those carrying sick or essential workers will be allowed to operate on the roads.
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